Regional Brewers Hardest Hit

Lagunitas had, too:

 

There is hope. The first beers from Great Lakes that I saw here, a few weeks after their expansion into this area, were all in variety packs that were about 2 months to 6 weeks old. And I'd been watching for them. Now it's a bit easier to find their stuff relatively fresh.

Frankly I think what you're seeing in the way of freshness problems is worse than before our legislature got rid of the case law. My retail distributor knew very well the importance that I placed on freshness and would only point out to me the cases of things like Two "Hearted or Yards that were new. (In part because he already knew I always checked dates before buying anything.) It was also easier for him to get me fresh if I ordered something. I once had a case of DFH 90 min. in hand less than a week after bottling, and a case of Stoudts Pills that was about a week old.

As I used to point out in some of the old mid-atlantic threads about people wanting to have the convenience in PA of variety in their shopping, e.g., in places like Acme or Whole Foods, "Be careful what you wish for, you might get it."

 

I will start to believe there is some “hope” when I see signs of change.

Permit me to repeat a story I posted in the past concerning Firestone Walker:

“For a significant period of time (over a year) I was unable to find any Firestone Walker beers in any of the multiple beer stores in my area that were less than 5-6 months old. One of my local beer stores conducted a Firestone Walker beer tasting which was hosted by the Philadelphia area sales rep for Firestone Walker (she was/is a Firestone Walker employee). I reshuffled my schedule to make sure I could attend this event. While I was there I sampled the beers she poured and chit-chatted with her for a while. After about 5 minutes I started asking pointed/detailed questions about Firestone Walker Brewing Co. She pleasantly entertained my questioning for about 5 minutes and then she blurted out in an unpleasant tone "Are you a beer industry person?" I responded with the truthful answer that I was just a beer customer and I was just trying to learn about Firestone Walker and their distribution system (which absolutely sucked in Philly at that time). At this point she would not answer any more questions from me. I then walked her over to the retailer’s shelves to show her several cases of Firestone Walker beers that were over a year old. She looked at me with a dirty look and stated: "They shouldn't be there". I was about to ask her: "Are you personally going to remove those cases?" but at this point I had enough of her attitude and nonsense. I simply stated "It was a pleasure speaking to you" which was a lie and I walked out of the store. It was apparent to me that she had zero interest in truly recognizing and fixing this issue.

About a year after this event I learned that she got promoted by Firestone Walker. Crazy!!

Cheers!

 

One other thing I discovered (much too late ) that there was a time when Duvel-Moortgat did a public offering of some of their shares on one of the European exchanges to raise cash for themselves. Once they accomplished their development goals, had solidified things and built up their finances (but before their round of expansion into the US and before I knew anyting about their shares being available) they made a public offer to buy back their outstanding shares at roughly 3 times the then current market value. Fairly quickly they had pretty much regained full ownership they then began to implement their plan for expansion into the US marketplace though their acquistion and further development of their acquired breweries which they seem in fact to be treating as partners rather than property.

 

Those FW boxed /canned 6er's...where on the outside of the box can you find the darn bottled on/best by dates? I looked all over a 6er of Pivo (one of my fav. pilsners) the other day and couldn't find a date. Went back on the shelf unfortunately, as I've seen 9+mo. old FW Pivo bottles in that same store. Too risky.

 

Very small font, usually on the top - at least it was on this 4 pack of Leo v. Ursus purchased last month..

Might have had to spin the pack around for a few times but have never failed to find it.

 

Curious, was this before or after the sale to Duvel-Moortgat?

 

Small breweries can't complete with contract supply prices. That makes it nearly always so that the small brewer has to charge more money for a comparable product that already exists on the shelves.

One area where small breweries can be competitive is to make alternative styles of beer utilizing cost prohibitive ingredients for large breweries...The customer has already established a willingness to pay more for smaller boutique beers.

I live in wine country, I also know beer. I think the future of beer is small boutique tasting rooms with less shelf space politics and more delivery of an amazing product direct to the consumer.

I would love to pay 10-25$ for a single bottle of beer, but I would want to know it wasn't being shared on the same shelves as Bud or Coors...Call it snobbery if you will.

But I think craft beer has been given an almost free ride in what it delivers and calls craft. The market of fine wine in Sonoma county is still full of small esoteric wine producers...some even age the wine for a year or two in a barrel...stil 20-25$ a bottle.

A brewery who cranks out barrel aged beers...ages them in a year and sells for 20$ a 12 ounce...that doesn't jive with me.

If the little guy wants my sympathy and money, they will be making nice beer only at the source.

 

Tom, I just do not remember but my point to you is that it really doesn't matter. My local beer retailers had old FW beers before the sale and after the sale it is exactly the same.

Cheers!

 

Oh, I got your point. I was just curious about which point in time you had your conversation.

 

Sweet!

Cheers!

 

two thoughts on this thread:

1. i live in philly and found fresh fortem and luponic distortion on the shelf. FW year-round offerings are a different story though.

2. wake up dead nitro is so goddamn good; i don't even know if i've ever had another left hand beer but if they close down they best sell this recipe to someone

 

Unfortunately that is so true!

Cheers!